Filtration through a filter bed and filtration through non-woven fabric or fiber stand out among known filtration water treatments.
In that sense, in filtration through a filter bed, the untreated water goes through filtering means arranged in the form of a bed. Granular activated carbon (GAC) and/or ion exchange resin are often used as filtering means for household devices.
The untreated water flows through the gaps of the filter bed, where the granular activated carbon (GAC) traps chemical contaminants by means of a process of adsorption, and the ion exchange resin traps ions dissolved in the water. The efficiency of the process depends on the contact time of the water with the filtering means.
Filtration through a filter bed is not able to trap pathogenic microorganisms (viruses or bacteria) and its efficiency with other contaminants is limited by the grain size distribution of the bed.
On the other hand, filtration through non-woven fabric or fiber is a surface filtration based on a sieving effect. Solids do not enter the filtering means, but rather are trapped on the surface thereof, since the pore size of the filtering means is smaller than the size of the solid particles.
Sieves, fabrics, filter paper or membranes can be used as filtering means. These means may include in the composition thereof complementary filtration materials, such as powdered activated carbon (PAC), which allows for adsorption with a shorter contact time and greater efficiency compared to granular activated carbon (GAC) for a filter bed.
This filtration means can reach the microfiltration or ultrafiltration threshold and is capable of trapping the pathogenic microorganisms. The efficiency thereof in trapping contaminating agents of another type is greater than that of the process of filtering through a filter bed.
Devices for treating water, such as water filtration jugs for household use, are well known today. These systems only use means for filtering through a filter bed, which is generally granular activated carbon (GAC), and are primarily designed to improve the taste and appearance of the water, but in no case do they remove pathogenic microorganisms.
On the other hand, there are portable systems designed for outdoor use which use filtration means such as non-woven fiber or fabric membranes. This is the case of filter bottles, which are systems that are more effective for filtering out pathogenic microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, etc.) and other contaminating agents, but their filtration capacity is quite low.
Other portable devices are fitted to the faucet and filter the running water under continuous flow, but their efficiency is limited only to filtering through a filter bed, and they do not have the capacity to trap pathogenic microorganisms. In fact, they are characterized by being made up of a small reservoir housing a filter element that requires being periodically replaced.
Patent document US05665224A discloses a filter jug. The device allows filtering water by means of a filter bed, primarily granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange resin. This device uses gravity and the communicating vessels principle to filter water, but it does not act on pathogenic microorganisms and its effect on other contaminating agents is low.
These devices are limited to improving the taste of water from the faucet and reducing some contaminating agents, do not allow filtering continuously flowing water and are limited to treating a certain amount of water according to the volume of the filter jug.
Furthermore, it requires the use of filter cartridges that are periodically replaced.
Patent document U.S. Pat. No. 7,473,362B1 discloses a portable device consisting of a bottle or canteen that allows filtering water by means of a membrane filter located in the upper part of the container and which must be periodically replaced by means of a system of replacement parts.
The drawback of this type of device is that it does not allow being used under continuous flow since it cannot be coupled to the mouth of the faucet and it is limited to the capacity of the container.
The devices that have been known up until now generally suffer from being unable to act on a continuous flow of water, and those that perform this function do not assure complete sanitization of the water. Furthermore, the known configurations do not possess the specific functional characteristics to enable high-quality water treatment for household use.
For this reason there is a need to provide portable systems for treating water that require no installation, which combine being more functional and being more economically affordable for consumers.